I realised that I'm updating once a month now. It's taking longer to write. It's not that I don't know what to write it's more like I don't have any drive to write and I have no idea why. It wont be getting better fir right now either because exams are coming up again. I'm so sorry I left you hanging for so long too. I hope you review as much if not more than you did for the last chapter. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Chapter 18

That night all Hinata could do was lie in her bed devastated and numb to the world. The break-up swam around in her head plaguing her. Being unable to cry she lay eyes wide open unable to sleep because of the rift in her heart. No amount of music could console her. No amount of anything. She hadn't even changed out of her clothes when she got home.

She had really thought that maybe this was more than it had been for her years of crushing on Naruto. This hurt worse than Naruto dumping her for Ino had. He hadn't even really told her why. Was it just because he could? Was it all just to mess with her in the first place? Well congratulations she was officially messed up now. There was no way she was going out with anyone else ever. She wasn't even going to look at another popular or good looking guy with a good thought ever. Those guys were over-rated. They could all die for all she cared. Naruto could go die. Sasuke could go die. They could all go die. Except for Neji. He was a good guy. He wouldn't do that to anybody. Neither would Kiba. He was always nice. So was Shino. They could be best friends and sit and talk about bugs. Maybe Shino was onto something, bugs didn't break people's hearts.

Her thoughts had cycled round and round all night but it always cane back to the break-up. Always. It was almost four in the morning when she got out of bed to bathe ignoring the mirror as she passed it. It was a listless bath that did nothing to help her. The comfort of her home clothes were lost on her but then she finally managed a few hours of sleep.

She woke to a quiet house but that was expected. When she finally left her room it was late enough that her father had already gone to work and Neji was gone to school for his class trip. She had told them the night before that she would not be going because she wasn't feeling well. Hanabi was still in her room. She had gotten holidays days before and it was too early for her to be up.

Hinata had just found cold leftovers from her forgotten and untouched dinner from the night before and was in her way to fling herself into the living room couch to turn on the television to stare at it without really seeing it when the doorbell rang catching her in the hall just opposite it. She stood staring at it bleakly hoping it was finish. It ran again and she sighed before resting her plate the side/hall table. She ignored the hall mirror as she approached the door. She just hoped this wouldn't take long.

She pulled the door open as the bell began to ring again. Whoever it was, was impatient. She froze when she saw who it was.

"Hinata! Thank God!" Itachi exclaimed the moment he saw her. He frowned at her appearance. "What happened to you?"

Before she could snap at him that it was his brother, he took her free arm in his saying: "Never mind that. We have to go. Sasuke's in the hospital."

A shot of panic ran through but she shoved it down and pulled her arm away. "No."

"What?"

"I'm not going."

"Why not? He's in the hospital."

"I doubt he wants to see me since he dumped me yesterday." she said coldly and watched as Itachi's eyes widened in shock and his mouth hung open a little. "He was quite clear about it."

"That freaking fucking idiot!" Itachi almost shouted kicking his foot against the wall. She grabbed Hinata by her shoulders to get her to look at him. "Listen to me Hinata. Look at me and listen to me clearly. It's a lie. He was lying and he's a complete idiot to do it and he freaking hurt you but he's lying."

"Don't lie to me Itachi." Hinata said trying to shrug away from him. He held her firmly in place. "He said it himself. 'Avoid me.' Doesn't have to tell me twice."

Itachi cursed again "I'm not lying Hana." he said softly. "He's such an idiot but I know he's lying and I'm not I promise. You have to come. We have to fix this."

"No. I'm not going there. I'm not going anywhere near him. Ever!"

"You have to!"

"No!"

"Hinata he's gonna need you."

"I don't care."

"He lied Hinata. He doesn't hate you or even dislike you. He really any honestly cares. I swear he does."

"Just leave it Itachi. I'm not going no matter what you say." she said tiredly about to close the door.

"Fine. I don't know what's wrong with that moron anyway." Itachi said stopping the door before pulling her out and slamming it shut. He threw her over his shoulder. "But you're coming with us anyway."

"What? No! Put me down!" Hinata shouted kicking at him and trying to get away. He continued walking towards the Hummer in the driveway as if she was saying anything or moving. Kisame was already opening the door to the back seat for them.

"You are going with us and we're going to fix this or so help me god I'm going to kill him." Itachi said darkly before throwing her into the backseat. Kisame quickly slammed the door shut behind her. After a hard bounce on the seat Hinata immediately tried to get the door to open again but failed. She tried the other door and failed. They were both child-locked. She tried to get the windows to roll down but those were locked too. By that time Kisame and Itachi were already in their seats and Itachi had already begun to move. She slumped into the seat numbly. They had so easily taken her.

"I swear Kisame, I'm going to kill that little brat!" she heard Itachi snarl. He was dripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white. "You better hide my knife or I'm going to stab him on sight."

"I already did, the moment you started to actually look angry." Kisame told him calmly. One of them had to remain calm. On the rare occasions that Itachi was the one who lost it, that job fell to Kisame. Whatever it was that made Itachi this angry, Kisame didn't want to know.

"Good or I'd have one less brother." Itachi said still snarling.

"You wouldn't have a brother." Kisame stated easily.

"Do you know what that Idiot did?"

"Don't think I want to especially if you're calling him a capital idiot now." was Kisame's reply. Hinata was starting to think they might have forgotten her.

"That idiotic moronic fool is going to die a very painful death." Itachi grumbled under his breath. Kisame rolled his eyes before turning to look at Hinata.

"Do you want some juice Hinata? You don't look so good." he said eying her critically. Itachi was still grumbling to himself angrily. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"I was just about to." she answered. They just kidnapped her and their offering her juice? Juice? Kisame sighed and handed her a bottle.

"It's a fruit blend my mom made. It's real good for you." he said.

There was silence as after that and Hinata noticed for the first time that Itachi was definitely speeding. She sipped the juice quietly thinking about everything Itachi had said so far.

"What makes you think he's lying?" she asked.

"He cares too much for you for him to just cut you lose so viciously." he said and Hinata saw Kisame clench his fist at the implications of that sentence. He said nothing. Hinata didn't contest what Itachi said. He might think that but that doesn't mean that's really how it is. Hinata knew what she heard and felt and the words of Itachi couldn't change that.

"What happened to him anyway?" she asked quietly.

"The hospital says he was held up, beat up and robbed last night but I don't think that's it." Itachi said a small bit of worry peeking through his anger. Sasuke was still his brother after all.

"Doesn't matter. He doesn't want to see me and I don't want to see him." Hinata said but she was getting slightly worried. She was still angry and hurt but she would blame her heart for actually still caring a little. She felt stupid for it but she couldn't help it. It just made her angrier at herself. She zoned out from Itachi's pleas for her to listen and his angry comments geared towards Sasuke to think about what she would do. She obviously could not get away.

She was so lost in thought that she missed the rest of the ride and when they turned into the hospital parking lot. She was brought out of her thoughts by Kisame tapping her on the arm from the door he had opened for her. He helped her out and walked with her into the hospital. Itachi was already there. He had found out the room they needed and was waiting on them. They quickly found the room and they pulled Hinata in before she could protest.

The first thing Hinata noticed was that he had an arm in a cast. His ankle was in a sprain cast. She felt vague satisfaction when he turned his head to look at them. There was a dark bruise mating his usually pale skin. The moment he saw her, his brow furrowed.

"Don't you even open that sewage pipe." Itachi threatened and even Hinata felt the stab of fury in that statement. Everyone was silent as he read Sasuke's chart. "You're lucky you don't have a second stab wound now. My personal knife plunge. There ain't no doctor who could have saved you from that one."

"You have work to do. You might have come close to dying last night but you came even closer a few minutes ago." Kisame warned cracking his knuckles.

"You have work to do. Talk to her properly, no lies. We had to kidnap her to get her here." Itachi snarled applying pressure to Sasuke's side in the area that he had been wounded. The younger Uchiha winced then glared up at his brother. "I will end you if you don't."

With that final warning Itachi took Kisame and left. The silence became sickening from there. Neither of them spoke. Hinata was nervous and Sasuke seemed to be at a loss of what to do. Hinata hesitantly took a step toward the bed and Sasuke watched her curious but weary.

"Is it true?" she asked. Her face betrayed no emotion and her eyes burned into his. He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment to remember what Itachi said. The more he thought about it he realised that Itachi knew. If Itachi knew then he was certainly dead if he screwed up."

"...Yes." he answered quietly not wanting to meet her eyes but he couldn't look away now.

"Why?"

"Hebi." he answered simply before finally looking away with a frown. "It's getting worse. They are planning something but they aren't telling anyone. Even the inner circle doesn't know. The only person who probably knows other than the boss is his right hand. The gang is a lot more active and it's not good."

That didn't exactly answer Hinata's question but she decides to leave it for now. She looked down at his body at the wounds and bruises that she could see. It was obvious that he had been in a fight.

"What happened?" she asked and he looked up at her frowning. He couldn't lie though.

"Kabuto." he said and she frowned

"Kabuto as in Kabuto? As in Kabuto Yakushi the biology teacher?" she asked surprised and Sasuke nodded.

"The boss' right hand." he told her and watches as it sunk in that one of their teachers was in the gangs. It had never occurred to her that one of them could be. Kabuto didn't seem to even be the type to be involved in gangs.

"What happened?" she asked again. His teeth clenched at the implication that her biology teacher put her boyfriend- right ex-boyfriend, here. He sighed putting his thoughts together before he began to speak.

FLASHBACK

Sasuke looked up from his searching when Kabuto made a sound of triumph. Kabuto had found the 'thing.' He placed it into his inner jacket pocket and motioned to Sasuke that they should leave now. They were almost to the door when they heard voices from below. They instantly knew that they couldn't be caught. They had to get out now but they couldn't go back the way they came.

"Fire-escape." Kabuto suggested. Sasuke nodded and they both moved towards the side of the room lined with windows. Sasuke looked through one that was open and had no frame and spotted the fire-escape at the next window. He was just about to announce this before suddenly he was pushed forwards and out the window: the third storey window. Frigging Kabuto!

The only thing that saved him was that he barely managed to grab the end of the fire-escape on the way down but that jarred his shoulder/arm out of its socket. He managed to grab hold a little lower with his other arm and fell the rest of the way, landing with only a sprained ankle and a small scrape from the landing. He glared upwards through the pain of his shoulder to see Kabuto making his way safely down the fire-escape. The bastard had pushed him! He tried to kill him! Sasuke out that aside for the moment because yelling at him from there would just get them caught and he had more pressing issues to deal with, like his arm.

He inhaled deeply pushing away the pain and gripped his arm to force his shoulder back into place. He grunted at the new pain but stood still as he got over it and waited on Kabuto. He massaged his ankle softly and tested his weight on it before Kabuto finally stood before him. A disinterested was all he got from Kabuto ad he looked him over.

"You're going to pay for that. You tried to kill me." Sasuke said levelling a glare at Kabuto.

"Just testing the famed Uchiha tenacity. You gotta be tough." Kabuto said smiling at him. It hid his sadism almost perfectly but Sasuke knew it was there. "Let's go. Run!"

He was off down the deserted street instantly. Sasuke ran after him as best he could with his ankle not fully healed. They were close to getting to the main road because of the short cut they had taken when they caught up to them. The other guys from the building quickly surrounded them. Kabuto and Sasuke watched wearily. One of them flicked out a knife and instantly Kabuto had a scalpel with a razor sharp edge in hand. They charged the two and Kabuto instantly attacked with a slash of his scalpel. Sasuke waited until the last moment before bringing his fist up to slam viciously into the first ones chin simultaneously pushing him into the other. From there the fight got bloody real quick. Kabuto managed to cut his attacker a few times but they were only small lacerations. Meanwhile Sasuke was working double hard to fend off the two attacking him. He was doing fine considering he wasn't at his best but it couldn't last forever.

Just as Kabuto had succeeded in disarming his attacker, Sasuke delivered a high kick to the first guy and spun to punch the other in the face with a follow up to his gut. It wasn't until that guy fell to the ground that he heard the clatter of another knife. The first guy was attending to sneak up behind him but Sasuke quickly dispatched of him with a complicated move but not without injury to his arm from the move that his attacker had used. It didn't feel broken but it was pretty close to it.

"Let's get out of here!" the other guy said scrambling up from the ground. They quickly ran off but not before Kabuto got in one last quick slash. They watched them leave and Kabuto turned to Sasuke with a calculating look when the teen groaned in pain after taking a step forward. Sasuke felt for the shot of burning pain in his side and pulled away with wet fingers coated with blood.

"Shit."

"Indeed." Kabuto commented but made no move towards him. He was still watching him with a calculating look in his eyes. "I think it's time we test that Uchiha perseverance that they pride so much."

"What?" Sasuke asked

"It's only a few more blocks to the main. Let's go." Kabuto said turning to walk away. Sasuke stared at him.

"No way in hell." Sasuke growled following at a slower pace. His side hurt badly. Obviously the wound wasn't critical but if not treated now it would be. A few blocks could be the end of him and this bastard who was supposed to be a doctor was going to make him walk to test some shit. It wasn't as if Kabuto didn't have the tools. He always had his tools. He had already attempted to kill him earlier so this must be a second chance for him.

Sasuke didn't get much further before the wooziness finally set in and he was having problems staying upright. Kabuto glanced back at him a few times to check his progress.

"Just two more now Sasuke." Kabuto taunted.

"I'm going... to end you." Sasuke told him. Not two steps later he stopped sliding himself down the wall he was leaning on.

"You'd have to survive first, now wouldn't you?" Kabuto said looking him over again. He approached slowly. "Can't move anymore. You made it further than I thought you would."

"Eat shit." Sasuke snarled adjusting himself. Kabuto squared before him and Sasuke grew uncomfortable at his closed off look. "Are... you going to... fix this now?"

"Actually," Kabuto said as he began shuffling around in Sasuke's pockets until he found his wallet and phone. "I'm going to take these and call you an ambulance. That should take about fifteen to twenty minutes to get here." he looked Sasuke over one last time. "The question is: can you last that long?"

"You... shit head... bastard." Sasuke called after him.

"Not so creative when you're bleeding out, are you?" he taunted with a look over his shoulder. He had his phone in hand by then. "Ta."

FLASHBACK

"I don't remember much after that." Sasuke admitted with a sigh. She had been silent all through. She wasn't even looking at him.

"Do you want to stay in Hebi?" Hinata asked after a moment of silence. He looked up at her before answering.

"No. Not in a long while but I can't just leave. I'm only out if I'm dead. This is dangerous stuff and if the boss even thought that I didn't want to be there any more I'd be in deep shit." he said thinking about what might happen to Hinata if Orochimaru decided that whatever he did to him wasn't enough. "I know what I did was stupid and I don't expect you to take me back or even forgive me. I just hope you understand why I did it because if you did take me back or forgive me, you'd be stupid."

"I guess I'm stupid then." she muttered after a moment of silence. At his surprised look she said clearly: "I haven't forgiven you. I might but I haven't yet." Sasuke's eyes widened at this. "We will find a way with Hebi."

"We?" he asked brow furrowed. He watched puzzled as she leaned over him to whisper in his ear in a quietly dangerous tone: "Lie to me again and I'll destroy you."

He watched as she pulled away and left without a backward glance. Maybe he wasn't completely doomed. Maybe.

Hinata left the room with mixed feelings. She saw his logic but that didn't mean she agreed or that liked how it felt to have her heart ripped out second time. She didn't understand how the Kabuto could do those things but she could understand why Sasuke wanted out. She could see the logical stuff but the emotional stuff was harder. She was going to stick by her decision though.

"Hinata!" a familiar voice called and Hinata looked up to see Mikoto. Standing beside her with an arm around her was Fugaku. Mikoto looked like had been crying. She pulled away from her husband to go and hug Hinata. "How are you? Are you ok? Is he ok? Is my baby ok?"

"He's fine Mrs Uchiha."

"Mikoto dear." she corrected and Hinata nodded. Fugaku put a hand on his wife's head, patting it before settling there, and with a nod to Hinata swept his wife away to see their son. Hinata looked over at Itachi.

"Can I go back home now?" she asked and Itachi nodded. He led her out to the car and drove her home. Her mind was on thoughts of that morning and Sasuke and everything he had told her. What would she do? What could she do?

Her thoughts were finally pulled away from the sidling mass of confusion when then stopped in front of the house. Hanabi rushed out of the house clearly worried as soon as she saw it was her sister. She waved goodbye to Itachi as he drove away realising only belatedly that Kisame hadn't cone with them.

"What happened?" Hanabi asked worried and Hinata looked at her sister. Confiding in her would help more than keeping it all in right? But maybe not everything. Not to her sister at least.

"I went to the hospital." she began.